Joey Paul

Biography

Joey Paul is an multi-award-winning indie author, exploring the young adult genre. She has released fifteen books in total so far, with the sixteenth due out in 2019. Her current works include the "Dying Thoughts" series, which is eight books and the "Lights Out" trilogy, as well as several standalone novels. She writes across genres, with crime, mystery, paranormal, sci-fi and dystopian being the ones most frequently on her list. She is writing her next two books at the moment, having recently finished her last two.

Joey is disabled and a graduate from The Open University with a BA (Hons) in Health & Social Care. When not reading medical textbooks, she enjoys reading crime novels, medical dramas and young adult novels. When she's out and about, she likes looking for Tupperware in the woods with GPS satellites, otherwise known as geocaching. And when she's not doing THAT, she's sleeping! She's 38 and has been writing since she was retired from her job on medical grounds at the age of 19. She plans to write for as long as she has ideas or until someone tells her to stop!

Smashwords Interview

What are you working on next?

I'm working on my nineteenth and twentieth books right now.Nineteen is the third of a trilogy about a dystopian world where people are sent off to sleep on the day after their sixtieth birthdays. The main character, Lock, discovers someone is ageing people down to give them a longer life, while ageing others up to take their place. The trilogy plays out with Lock and other characters working to change the system.My twentieth book is the second in my new series - Cramping Chronicles - which is about a teen girl who has the ability to feel other people's emotional and physical pain. She also sometimes gets "film clips" that show her the cause the pain. Jessie is fifteen and newly chronically ill. The first book dealt with learning how to deal with her empath abilities and the second book follows her as she feels a stranger's pain, and wants to stop the worst from happening.

Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?

I grew up - and still live - in the south-west of the UK. I lived most of my childhood in a richer part of town than I do now. My parents separated when I was thirteen and eventually as I got older (and sicker) I moved out on my own and lived with my best friend of many many years. We all now live in a historic part of town and it has inspired me to write a book about the area and the history of it. It has inspired my writing because I feel like when I write, unless otherwise mentioned, the town used is based off the town I live in. There are times when it's come in handy to have lived all over town because it means I know the places that only someone who has lived pretty much everywhere in the town would know about.

Where to buy in print

Series

Ever since the war ended, the United English Cityships have had equality. The rules are clear. You are born, you live and the day following your sixtieth birthday, you are sent off for your final sleep.

Lock and Clara managed to escape, now they must rush to cross the border and connect with the only people who can save them. With Lana’s betrayal still fresh in Lock’s mind, they have to leave their cityship and submerge themselves into another.
With the heat on, the army after them and Lana ready to avenge her loss, Lock and Clara are taking new steps towards the war that could end their world.

Join Tara in the final Dying Thoughts book!
Still living with the after effects of her dad’s accident, Tara is facing her AS exams and the pressure is on. With the internal investigation still hanging over her, all she wants is a moment to gather her thoughts and get some revision done.

Ever since the war ended, the United English Cityships have had equality. The rules are clear. You are born, you live and the day following your sixtieth birthday, you are sent off for your final sleep.
Lock is a firm believer in the system. It means that everyone is truly treated equally.

Join Tara in the seventh Dying Thoughts book!
Tara will have the house to herself while her Dad goes on his comeback tour. She has plenty of ideas about what to do with the time. Parties, college work and all the bits and pieces that come from being a student who also works for the police.

It’s the year 2050 and it’s possible for people to literally walk a mile in someone else's shoes. Enter Hetti, eighteen, and fresh out of training college, joining the police force alongside her best friend Layla. She’s excited about finally getting to do some practical work after spending so long talking about it in college.
Except her first cases are throwing up a few confusing signs.

Tara’s life is full of change. Her education, her friends, even her dad has changed. She’s struggling to find her feet after the events of the last few months.
She’s at college, her Dad’s a pop star again and she’s finally coming to terms with her gift.
Her new friends are being attacked, someone is targeting young women and Tara is going to find them out and stop them.

The LGBTQ rainbow covers people from all walks of life. Catherine and her friends all have to struggle for acceptance in their own lives. Parents, friends, teachers, pretty much everyone seems to have their opinion on how they should live. So when people from that community start getting attacked and then murdered, Catherine feels she has to do something to stop it.

Tara has an admirer, someone who thinks the world revolves around her. The problem is, they won’t reveal their identity and the notes they’re sending her are getting weirder and creepier.
Then there’s the fact that she thinks she’s being watched. And the notes seem to be coming from someone she knows. Now she’s getting scared.
Can she find out who they are?

Harriet has a complicated life. She cares for her chronically ill Mum, while trying to juggle school and a social life. She’s tired, overworked and underpaid.
Yet, one day she sees what she thinks is a ghost, but ghosts don’t exist do they? And they especially don’t help you travel in time, right?
Now Harriet has a murder to solve, without being caught.

Tara has a gift that allows her to see the last moments of someone’s life when she touches something that belonged to them.
She’s finally close to finishing school, but then disaster strikes when Kaolin is kidnapped. Can Tara find her friend in time? Will her gift be able to save her friend before it’s too late?
What’s the point in having a gift that won’t even help save the ones you love?

Angelina and Zack couldn’t be anymore different; one lives in apparent riches and the other in poverty.
They meet online and a friendship blooms, but then things in Angelina’s life take a turn for the worst and she finds herself turning to the only person she thinks loves her – Zack.
With everything against them, can Zack and Angelina cross the distance to change her life before it's too late?

Join Tara and Kaolin in the third book in the Dying Thoughts Series.
It’s finally summer and all Tara Leverton plans to do is spend the time sunbathing, hanging out with Kaolin and doing as little as possible. Her gift has kept her busy and now is the chance for some serious down time before her final year at school.

Lynne and Hope are sisters – they share parents, living space, but that’s pretty much it.
Until one day when Lynne has to run and rely on the sister she hates to save her.
If Hope fails, Lynne’s going to jail and she can kiss her perfect job goodbye, but if she succeeds will Lynne be able to swallow her pride and see Hope for who she really is?

Tara Leverton has a ‘gift’. Up until recently it has been kept a secret from everyone.
Things have certainly changed.
For one, Tara has a best friend, Kaolin. For another, Kaolin, her dad and the police know about her ‘gift’. She’s got the chance to help them solve murders – actually make a difference, one that doesn’t involve doing homework on time.

Did you ever think that running away could solve things?
Sometimes the world throws so much at you, escape seems like the only option.
Sarah, Chloe and Charlotte thought it was.
They are about to discover that problems follow you and that sometimes there is more to a friendship that it first seems.

Tara has the ability to see the last moments of someone's life when she touches something that used to belong to them. It's a secret she shares with no one, not even her father.
Until Kaolin comes along. Tara has always been a loner, but with the prospect of friendship, she finds herself pulled into Kaolin's own secret.
The question is, will they both survive when their secrets start to come out

Imagine having everything you ever wanted. A perfect family, a perfect boyfriend, perfect friends – the whole group that only exists because of you!
Then imagine waking up one morning and discovering you don’t have any of that.
It was a dream…a dream you had in a coma that was supposedly brought on by drugs.
Imagine having to start again at school, desperately trying to fit in and prove that th

Smashwords book reviews by Joey Paul

Teddy & Lily - True Friendship Is Unconditional Loyalty
on Sep. 04, 2017
I picked this up for a quick read as it sounded like a delightful book and I am happy to say it was. The story of one teddy and one little girl who's met her best friend. Short, sweet and a nice commentary on the way humans live their lives. Love the author's style and will be checking out more of her books.

Birdy & Fishy, Destination: Freedom
on Sep. 04, 2017
A short, but sweet story about Fishy's desire for freedom, and the way in which Birdy helps her to achieve that. Enjoyable and a nice quick read. I liked it very much, along with the message it sends to the reader in that you don't know how lucky you are until faced with your own privilege, and that there is always hope, you just have to find it.